It's such a shame to lose a free throw. Playing in the court has pressure from the opponent, time, your teammates, the audience, and yourself. You have to shoot the ball despite all the pressures around. But with a free throw, you have the ball, no one will try to get it from you, and you have all the time to shoot the ball. But why is it that many players, even good shooters, miss most of their free throws? Maybe they need more practice or maybe they need to apply more ways to improve their free throw. Improve your player or your free throwing skills by following the tips below: Make it personal. The truth is, there is no rule on how one should handle and throw the ball in a free throw. What matters is that the player should shoot the ball from the free throw line no matter how he does it. So when trying to improve your free throw shooting, better stick to what works the best for you. Do not copy other people's techniques. Make it your own and leave those techniques as theirs. Formulate   a repetitive way of shooting the ball. A free throw should be personalized. But it should also be repetitive. You should be able to repeat your free throw techniques whether you are in your court or in another court, whether you are energized or tired. You can't say you have a personal free throw technique if you can't repeat it over and over again. Shoot at the same position and distance for every free throw. Basketball courts may be located in different places or maybe marked with different paint colors. But all of these courts maintain the same distance from the _ to the free throw line. Familiarize your perfect position when making your free throws. That should help you do your perfect throw. Why do so many players fail to make a successful free throw? A) Because they don't have any special skills B) Because they are lacking in practice and tips. C) Because they are not so familiar with rules D) Because many of them are green hands.
B

Britain's private schools are one of its most successful exports.The children of the well-off flock to them,whether from China,Nigeria or Russia :the number of foreign pupils rose by 1.4%in the last year alone. Yet foreign students,whether educated in British private schools or elsewhere,are decreasingly likely to go to English universities.According to the Higher Education Funding Council for England,307,200 overseas students began their studies in the country in 2012-13,down from 312,000 two years earlier and the first drop in 29 years.Student numbers from the rest of the European Union(EU)fell--probably a result of the increase in annual tuition fees in England from PS6,000($10,000)a year to PS9,000.But arrivals from India and Pakistan declined most sharply. In contrast to the visa system for private schools,which is extremely loose(the Home Office counts private schools as favoured sponsors),student visas have been tightened.Foreign students used to be allowed to work for up to two years after graduating.They now have only four months to find a job paying up to PS20,600 if they want to stay in Britain. This change was intended to deal with fake colleges offering two-year work visas.But it seems to have put off serious students too.Nick Hillman of the Higher Education Policy Institute says the government has sent unclear messages about the sort of immigration it wants to restrict.Australia and America,which have more relaxed entry criteria for students,are becoming more favoured destinations. Britain's student-visa system bas become more onerous  overall.As a result,Britain is losing out to other countries in the contest for talent.Its unwelcoming attitude will harm its long-term development.And the drift of foreign students from leading British private schools to American colleges may have another, somewhat happier,consequence:America might become rather better at cricket . What causes the foreign student numbers to English universities to drop? A) Poor quality of higher education. B) The sharp increase of tuition fees. C) The poor economic situation in EU. D) Higher living cost in England.
B

Hippos have always attracted people's interest. Modern hippos in Walt Disney movies can dance lightly. A stone hippo in a 13th-century church in France has wings. And in ancient Egyptian fairy tales, the hippo was a goddess that guided the dead to the afterworld. Despite their popular appeal, hippos, as well as other animals, have difficulty when their needs conflict with those of humans. The early Egyptians liked to hunt hippos for their teeth and because they were dangerous animals. Amulets to protect babies from demons were made from hippo bones. About 4,000 years ago, there were so many hippos in Egypt that they caused serious crop damage. Egyptian farmers killed them routinely, and by the beginning of the 19th century, all the hippos in Africa had been killed. People used to see hippos fight in the arenas of ancient Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, hippos weren't seen in Europe again until a few zoos began to exhibit them in the mid 1800s. All the various uses and abuses of hippos through the centuries have made their population fall greatly. Where they do occur, mostly in national parks, they live in such high density that they make the grasslands bare. This causes other grass-eating animals to go farther for food, and hippos, which can't live far from water, destroy their own feeding grounds. In Africa, hippos became extinct   _  . A) around the 1850s B) in the 13th century C) about 4,000 years ago D) in the early 19th century

D